ID:1460738
 
I've been thinking about Quests for a project of mine. However, when I come to the topic, I have very few ideas, which none I will implement. These are:

1. Go [place] get [item] run back.
2. Kill 10 [monster] run back.
3. Make [item] run back.
4. Talk to [name]. Then [name] directs you to [name2], who then does the same.

Does anyone have any ideas of other quest ideas? Mainly fun ones. Whenever I play a game, I usually HATE the quests because they're so boring.
Combine the 1 and 2 quests like, Go [place] clear the place/dungeon then at the end of it u get [item] and take it back and report em
Explore[área] or bring supply's(ingredients). Um PVP? Kill a player. Make a pie? Catch a crimnal in near by town?
Those are the standard quests for rpgs and I personally find them boring. I think a better way to give players experience/items is to have them do certain requirements like

"Use X item Y times"
"Go X seconds in Y area without getting hurt"

Sure, they can still be ground up, but it's more of a gameplay thing than hide-seek. You have no idea how much I hated the fetch quests in Zelda.
What you will find is, on a basic level every game ever is made up of one of a few types of very simple quests.

Kill monsters
Get an item
Go somewhere
Talk to someone

Those 4 quests make up practically every single game you have ever played ever.

The objective isn't to make up new types of quests, because in most cases this is impossible. The objective is to hide these quests with a cleverly written story.
In response to The Magic Man
The Magic Man wrote:
What you will find is, on a basic level every game ever is made up of one of a few types of very simple quests.

Kill monsters
Get an item
Go somewhere
Talk to someone

Those 4 quests make up practically every single game you have ever played ever.

The objective isn't to make up new types of quests, because in most cases this is impossible. The objective is to hide these quests with a cleverly written story.

That is so true!
Quests really depend on the game and what players can do. Can players move around the map? Make a quest that requires moving around the map. Can the player attack and defeat enemies? Quest. Can the player like this game on facebook? Quest.
Thank Kaio, Magic and Lugia. Those have given me a few more ideas ^^.

Please post some more~
Read up on some history, or current news events. Then use such information to inspire some storylines for quests. Always make sure every quest offers something new to the player. Like Magic Man said, use the basic formulas for all RPG quests, and hide them with a clever story and sometimes new game mechanics.

For instance, here's a simple quest you'd likely see in a game like WoW:

We have a spider problem, and we need to do some research on them. Go kill 8 spiders, and bring me their venom. After that, I want you to go talk to this guy who will pay you to collect 5 diamonds to power up our microscope.


Sounds pretty boring. Let's make it more interesting.

We have a big spider problem. I need you to sneak up on one of them and trap them in a cage. After that, I will proceed to do research on them while you find a rare diamond that was kept in a sorcerer's tomb that requires a puzzle to enter, after that, his ghost will likely try to kill you. You got the diamond? Good, but I have bad news. It looks like the spiders are made out of humans! There's some evil witchcraft going on around here, and we have to get to the bottom of it. On their back appears to be an arcane symbol that resembles the number 8. Find that symbol, and look for any clues that might show us where this magic is going on! Hmm, you saw it on the ground by the lake? There's an abandoned castle somewhere in those woods. This is hopefully the last favor I ask of you, go in that castle (which is has a few traps that the witch laid out), and put an end to this right now!


The player then kills the witch, and comes back to see that the spider the man was researching killed him. The player will then kill the spider, and be happy that he made a difference.
In response to GamerMania
That's still combining all the little goals mentioned above, which is fine (as long as the quest isn't displayed as a wall of text). Adding picturesque writing is another story.
That's kind of the point. As Magic Man said, even the most interesting of quests are made up of the same crap that you see in games like WoW. What your goal as a designer/developer is to make less bland than just giving players the building blocks.
You could have previous completed quests serve as prerequisites for future quests. An example of this could be: "We're in a rut! Enemies are terrorizing the town and they appear to be immune to magic. Use the Sword of Buddha to slay them. [...]"
GamerMania makes good points. Take quests in games like Diablo II, for example. I had to do them several times to find them boring, but they were among these same elements, and they didn't even have a lot of story.

What saved some of them was basic things like what I had to go through to reach them, or find them. I mean to slay the summoner, you needed to figure out which of like 7 paths was the right one. Then there was some dagger you needed at some point, and it could be in one of like 3, or maybe it was 8? temples

Sure, this was more fitting for rogue-likes, which Diablo II was, but still. Things like this work. Working in traps, mazes, and other stuff is just another good thing to do every now and then.

While it might be frustrating, even if you think of something beyond these elements, it will have been done before many times; you just need to put your own spin on it and make it a good spin.
In response to GamerMania
GamerMania wrote:
Read up on some history, or current news events. Then use such information to inspire some storylines for quests. Always make sure every quest offers something new to the player. Like Magic Man said, use the basic formulas for all RPG quests, and hide them with a clever story and sometimes new game mechanics.

For instance, here's a simple quest you'd likely see in a game like WoW:

We have a spider problem, and we need to do some research on them. Go kill 8 spiders, and bring me their venom. After that, I want you to go talk to this guy who will pay you to collect 5 diamonds to power up our microscope.


Sounds pretty boring. Let's make it more interesting.

We have a big spider problem. I need you to sneak up on one of them and trap them in a cage. After that, I will proceed to do research on them while you find a rare diamond that was kept in a sorcerer's tomb that requires a puzzle to enter, after that, his ghost will likely try to kill you. You got the diamond? Good, but I have bad news. It looks like the spiders are made out of humans! There's some evil witchcraft going on around here, and we have to get to the bottom of it. On their back appears to be an arcane symbol that resembles the number 8. Find that symbol, and look for any clues that might show us where this magic is going on! Hmm, you saw it on the ground by the lake? There's an abandoned castle somewhere in those woods. This is hopefully the last favor I ask of you, go in that castle (which is has a few traps that the witch laid out), and put an end to this right now!


The player then kills the witch, and comes back to see that the spider the man was researching killed him. The player will then kill the spider, and be happy that he made a difference.

That was epic. I needed that example, thanks bro
In response to GamerMania
What about quests in a multiplayer game? What things would/should you do differently than if it was single player?
A lot of these could be adapted into quests.
http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/plots.htm

In response to Raruno
Raruno wrote:
What about quests in a multiplayer game? What things would/should you do differently than if it was single player?

That could very well be made into a multiplayer quest if there was some way to make the spiders not appear to the client.

As far as making new quests go, simply use the building blocks of all quests, and find some way of adding depth to it. Read up on some mythology and history, too. That could give you plenty of ideas.
Thanks Guys, I have a LOT more ideas now :).

I really needed this little push.